The Jolly Waggoner (Roud # 1088) is an English folk-song.
A waggoner looks back on his life. His parents had disapproved of his choice of profession, but has no regrets. He can be cold and wet, but he simply stops at the next inn and sits with the landlord, drinking. In the summer he hears the birds sing. In the autumn he has lots of work and the money rolls in.
There are many different versions of the song. These lyrics are those provided by Robert Bell in his 1857 Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England: [1]
When first I went a-waggoning, a-waggoning did go,
I filled my parents’ hearts full of sorrow, grief, and woe.
And many are the hardships that I have since gone through.
And sing wo, my lads, sing wo!
Drive on my lads, I-ho!
And who wouldn’t lead the life of a jolly waggoner?
It is a cold and stormy night, and I’m wet to the skin,
I will bear it with contentment till I get unto the inn.
And then I’ll get a drinking with the landlord and his kin.
And sing, &c.
Now summer it is coming,—what pleasure we shall see;
The small birds are a-singing on every green tree,
The blackbirds and the thrushes are a-whistling merrilie.
And sing, &c.
Now Michaelmas is coming,—what pleasure we shall find;
It will make the gold to fly, my boys, like chaff before the wind;
And every lad shall take his lass, so loving and so kind.
And sing, &c.
The distribution of the song appears to be confined to Southern England, though an early broadsheet version comes from Dublin.
Robert Bell claimed The song dated back to at least the 1750s, and observed that it was especially popular in South West England. He suggested that it related to "the days of transition, when the waggon displaced the packhorse." [2]
Ralph Vaughan Williams collected it from Edward Rose, landlord of the Bridge public house at Acle, Norfolk on Tuesday 14 April 1908.
Alfred Williams collected it from David Sawyer of Ogbourne, Wiltshire. [3]
Sabine Baring-Gould and Cecil Sharp also collected it.
J. F. Nugent and Co (Dublin) (1860–1899)
| Album/Single | Performer | Year | Variant | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Travelling For a Living" | The Watersons | 1965 | "The Jolly Waggoners" | Live version. Broadcast on TV in 1966. Issued as a DVD ("Mighty River of Song") in 2004. |
| "The Watersons" | The Watersons | 1966 | . | . |
| "A Shropshire Lad" | Fred Jordan | 1952 | "Jolly Waggoner" | . |
| "Lark in the Morning" | The Freemen | 1971 | . | . |
| "Dorset Style" | The Yetties | 1978 | . | . |
| "A World Without Horses" | Walter Pardon | 1970s | . | . |
| "Johnny's Private Army" | Johnny Collins | 1975 | . | . |
| "By Numbers" | Woodbine Lizzie | 1979 | . | . |
| "Pint Pot and Plough" | Mike Ballantyne | 1992 | . | Canadian singer [Now on CD; see: www.mikeballantyne.ca] |
| "Brian Kelly In Memoriam" | Brian Kelly | c 2001 | . | . |
| "Fields to the Stones" | The Spain Brothers | c 2003 | . | . |
| "By Chance It Was" | Mike Bosworth with John Kirkpatrick | 2004 | . | . |
| "The Makem and Spain Brothers" | The Makem and Spain Brothers | 2005 | . | . |
There are some pubs called "Jolly Waggoner", for example